BIOL 1101 Chapter 4: Chapter 4
5 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Earth is a cold place at least when it comes to chemical reactions. Life cannot survive at the high temperatures routinely used in industry for chemical synthesis. Instead, life relies on a group of catalysts called enzymes that speed up the rates of chemical reactions without the need for an increase in temperature. Until recently, just how good enzymes are at speeding up reaction rates was not fully appreciated. Richard wolfenden and his colleagues at the university of north carolina experimentally measured the rates of a range of uncatalyzed and enzyme-catalyzed biochemical reactions. The prize for the greatest difference between the uncatalyzed rate and the enzyme- catalyzed rate goes to a reaction that simply removes a phosphate group. In the cell, a group of enzymes called phosphates catalyze the removal of phosphate groups from a range of molecules, including proteins.
